Reviews

Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper

mandysreadinglist's review against another edition

3.0

 Cuuuute! This was such a cute read. I loved this love story 💕 SO MUCH.

In this bookish romance, our MC Preston is in love with his best friend Art. And when Art moves in with him after a bad breakup, Preston hopes this will finally be their chance to become something more. But when Art makes it clear that he doesn’t think Preston is boyfriend material, Preston channels his feelings into writing, using their relationship as inspiration for a new WIP. And then when he lands a publication deal and their story blows up as a bestselling novel, Preston realizes he could lose more than just his best friend if he doesn’t figure out a plan to come clean.

I loved the character dynamics of this story, the MCs insight into the publishing industry, his character growth, and most of all the burning emotions! It was a light read but much needed in the midst of my rollercoaster ACOTAR journey 😂

𝕄𝕦𝕤𝕥 ℝ𝕖𝕒𝕕 𝕀𝕗 𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕃𝕚𝕜𝕖:
💗 MMC x MMC romance
❤️‍🔥 sloooooow burns
📖 books about books 

ismendes's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

erinkathleeno's review

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

ryanandrew23's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The audiobook narrator definitely improved this story. I think the humor works with the audio book better than it might on the page.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Self harm, and Drug abuse

vyxter's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No

2.25

This was solidly mediocre. The humor was horribly forced, and made me cringe and look to the ceiling multiple times. The MC seems increasingly to be coded neurodivergent, but this is never made explicit, which annoyed me. The love interest was a total sweetie, and honestly so was the MC, but his insecurities and rambling felt inauthentic for much of the book. I will not be seeking out more from this author.

a_fret_argent's review against another edition

This wasn't for me at all. The entire narration is first person in P.K.'s head, and he has several attributes that makes this narrative decision difficult. First, he is super privileged and rather emotionally immature. Second, he is clearly neurodivergent, which I normally love in an MC, but it didn't work for me here, because at 30% I have zero sense of who Art is as a character or why P.K. loves him because of P.K.'s bouncing narration. Art barley gets any dialogue and is rarely even on page. That's not a setup for a romance that works for me, so I'm moving on.

moyarb's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

merricatfromblackwood's review

I read the first page and the narrative style is not for me. 

lezreadalot's review against another edition

3.0

What would he see if he read my book? Would he see chaos or order? Would he see me or himself, or both of us, or neither of us?

Halfway through reading this, I happened to look at the rating on Goodreads, and when I saw that it was so comparatively low, I was pretty confused? This is so entertaining, so witty, full of quips, with an anxious, self-deprecating but ultimately very lovable protagonist who is head over heels in love with his best friend. It's slow burn, friends to lovers, single POV, and turns some typical romance conventions on their heads. All those things are things that I adore, but now that I've finished the book, I think that maybe all of them didn't work together squeezed into one 300 page novel.  

At this point, I've sat with this book for a few hours, and I think I can articulate why I didn't absolutely love it the way I was sure I was going to in the first half. A couple things first: I'm really glad that I read this via audiobook. I'm not sure that I would have found PK as charming and relatable as I did if I had actually had to read him. He's a protagonist that will probably take some growing for a lot of people, and his very rambly, absent-minded, prone to going off on tangents before snapping back to the point style of narration might not work for everyone. It really did work for me while listening to it. And I didn't mind that he was the single POV that we got in this romance. I say it all the time, but I really do love a single POV romance, especially when the author manages to help the reader get to know the secondary character and see all the reasons why the secondary character loves the protagonist, without us ever getting their POV. I don't think this book succeeded quite as well with that. I really like Art as a character, but I don't feel like I know them, and I didn't feel half the emotion from them as I felt from PK. Which is a shame, because it's not like I want this to be dual POV. I just wanted the writing to give us a bit more insight into Art, instead of PK all the time.  

Slow burn is my absolute favourite thing, especially when paired with friends to lovers. I really liked that aspect of this book, and just how much PK is non-stop pining for Art. His internal monologue was really entertaining, and really funny, and really helped endear him to me. My only problem was that the main conflict of this book has to do with grand gestures, particularly those done publicly and for the wrong reasons, and I'm not sure how to explain it, but for me, it just didn't work like I might have thought it would have, and it didn't evoke the emotions I was expecting it to. I don't know. I adore the point that is being made, as I said, because some public displays of affection in books, particularly in the third act, often leave me reeling. This, everything about how it was done, was so realistically and carefully and lovingly portrayed, how both characters felt. But the fact that it was done when they were at a particular stage in their relationship/friendship, and there was a pretty big secret/misunderstanding between them... I have no idea how to articulate it, but from the conflict onwards, I just felt very meh about the book. Even though it was talking about things and dealing with things in a way that I love.  

There really is nothing major about this book that I did not like. This is just, again, that bewildering sense of wrong-footedness when you know that you could have liked a book a lot more than you actually do. Just a bit of a bummer, especially when I really like the premise, I really like the writing, I really like the conversations about sexuality and gender, (and the casual pronoun change) and I really adore all the characters.  

Listened to the audiobook as read by Pete Cross, which I really, really loved. I think this is my second experience with him, and it was just as good as the first. He put all of the humour into PK's narration and inner monologue and made this such a fun, light book to listen to, even when it got kind of heavy. This is a narrator I'll be looking out for a bit more. And I know I'll read from this author again.  

I held so much hope in my chest, that sometimes it felt like it would explode inside me. Or maybe that was just my heart, beating for Art, whether they knew it or not.

pmali's review

2.0

I can’t with this book. I’m sure this is good to some people. I just don’t happen to be them. The main character basically writes a love story between semi fictional versions of him and his best friend, then somehow lands a great publishing contract, and gets it published very quickly. Never telling his friend in the meantime. Even after that friend reads the book (doesn’t notice the obvious) and talks about it constantly. I think the MC is kind of an idiot and really got on my nerves.
I do have to admit tho, I don’t have a lot of patience with people so it may have been just me having the issue with them.
2/5